Bold Beggars

Read Mark 1:40-45
⁴⁰ And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean." ⁴¹ Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, "I will; be clean." ⁴² And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. ⁴³ And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, ⁴⁴ and said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them." ⁴⁵ But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.

The leper never should have approached Jesus. He should have avoided Jesus, calling out, “unclean, unclean,” so Jesus could stay away. But he didn’t because of his desperate need for cleansing. He didn’t because Jesus was the one person who could address his desperate need. The leper approached stating, “if you will, you can make me clean.” And what was Jesus’ response? “I will; be clean.”

Too often boldness to cry out to God comes only once we feel we have cleaned ourselves up enough that our need doesn’t seem so desperate. When confronted with how desperate our need for cleansing really is, we hide away knowing we have no right to beg for such mercy. Jesus’ response to the leper directs us to be bold beggars: those who know all they can do is beg for his mercy and yet do so with boldness because of his gracious invitation. Jesus is the one person who can address our desperate need.